Victim of Fate Read Online Free PDF Page B

only
other building was a lumber mill built next to the stream that ran
alongside the town.
    "Seems we're too late," Tristam mused as they
crossed the bridge over the stream and rode into town.
    Baldwyn, the man from Fairhaven that had
sought their help, shook his head. "They can't all be gone!"
    "Where's this enchanted wood?" Kar asked.
    "To the west; the river flows through it and
comes here on its way to the sea."
    "The sea is near here?" Alto turned and sat
up on his horse to look to the east.
    "Several days’ travel," Kar said. "Even by
horse."
    "What about my people!" Baldwyn asked. "They
can't all be gone."
    "Stick together; let's see what there is to
be seen," Tristam ordered. He spurred his horse forward and into
the center of the hard-packed dirt road that ran through town.
    Alto studied the countryside as they rode,
looking for signs of disturbance. He nearly jerked himself out of
his saddle when Tristam yelled, "People of Fairhaven, show
yourselves!"
    Alto gave up on his search of the grounds and
looked to the shops and houses. The buildings looked well
maintained if basic until he saw boards stripped away near the
roofline of the general store. He studied the rooflines closer and
saw a house missing a board along the roof. The same house, he
realized a moment later, was missing the window on the second
story.
    "This town's been attacked," Alto called out
to the others. He pointed at the house and then at the ground where
a broken shutter had fallen. He turned and spied logs lying near
the lumber mill with white strips showing along their lengths.
    "What's that?" Namitus asked, following his
gaze to the logs.
    Alto frowned and shook his head. "I've seen
it before, but never that large."
    "Seen what?" Tristam asked as he turned his
horse around.
    "The stripping of logs like that. The bark's
been chewed off."
    "Chewed? Are there beavers to blame for this
then?" Tristam chuckled at his own joke.
    "Wasps," Alto said. "But never so large. It
must be something else."
    A scream burst out of the house with the
missing window. A moment later, someone started shouting as a baby
began to cry. The Blades turned, as one, and stared at the house.
From the open window, a stick emerged and then bent to grab onto
the edge. Removing any doubt about what the stick was, a baby was
thrust into the open air. The screaming infant was held by the
pincers of an oval face with two segmented eyes. Long feelers
emerged from the head, and then another leg came out and allowed
the enormous wasp to leave the opening behind while it clung to the
side of the house and crawled up onto the roof.
    "Saints preserve us!" Alto whispered at the
sight of the thing. The wasp was at least three feet long.
    A woman, barely more than a girl herself,
rushed to the open window and reached up in vain. The wasp had
already climbed too far away. She looked down and spied them and
cried out, "Help!"
    Alto scrambled to get his bow off his back.
He leapt off his horse and bent the weapon to fit the string to it.
"Hold, you'll hit the child!" Kar warned.
    The wasp moved to the apex of the roof and
spread its wings. Alto ignored the wizard’s command to wait and
fitted an arrow to the string. "If it flies, the babe will be
lost!" He drew the string back even as he heard the wizard
chanting.
    Alto's arrow struck the edge of the roof and
glanced off. It sheared through one of the wasp's wings, dropping
it back to the roofline and causing it to turn and drop the baby
over the edge. Kar's magic reached out at the same time, spraying
out silky strands that covered the house, roof, and the wasp and
baby. The magical spiderweb arrested the baby's fall but did
nothing to silence its cries. Alto fitted another arrow and took
better aim before losing it and killing the struggling wasp.
    "First wasps and now a spider? Why has evil
fallen on us!" The woman sobbed. She tugged at her arms and tried
to escape the clinging webbing that trapped her in the window. Alto
could make out